Dapol - 2F-036-009 - Hopper, Covered, Grain - British Rail - B885323

Specific Item Information: Post nationalisation, most bulk grain transportation was performed by rail and British Railways based its new standardised grain hopper on the LMS steel bodied grain hopper design with a 10ft 6 inch wheelbase and 21ft body. These wagons normally ran in small rakes of between 2 and 10 wagons as part of a general mixed goods train. The bulk grain was discharged from the wagon via a bottom discharge chute and then via an auger to the waiting road transport. The bulk transportation of grain grew during the 1960s and 70s as Britain exported grain overseas. However this net export had diminished by the early 1990s and the bulk movement of grain by rail became uneconomic. Today the proportion of grain transported in bulk is a very small proportion and ironically most grain is now transported in sacks as it was before the advent of rail freight services.

Road Name History: British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in 1962 designated as the British Railways Board.

British Rail designed and manufactured rolling stock from 1948 to 1989, at which time its subsidiary British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was privatised.

1997 marked the end of the privatization effort in which the last assets of British Rail were sold to 31 regional freight and passenger operators as well as Railtrack (which was later brought under public control as Network Rail), which was given the track and infrastructure.

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Brand/Importer Information: Dapol Ltd is a Welsh model railway manufacturer based in Chirk, Wales. The factory where design and manufacturing take place is just over the border in England. The company is known for its model railway products in N gauge and OO gauge. Dapol's name is a play on its founders David and Pauline Boyle's names. He owned a model concern Highfield Birds & Models. In 1981 he first tried to buy the Airfix and Mainline ranges. The Dapol brand name was first used in a Railway Modeller advert of September 1983. The first Dapol wagons (for OO) were announced to become available on 20 November 1983. From 1 March 1984 ex Airfix railway kits became available.

Dapol manufactures a growing range of N gauge locomotives, coaches and wagons, and is the main competitor of Graham Farish in the British 'ready-to-run' market. Continuous improvement in model specifications has led to the introduction of 40:1 gearing in locomotive drive mechanisms, NEM couplings on all stock, and LED lighting strips for coaching stock (yellow for 'older' coaches, to represent incandescent illumination, and white for more modern coaches and EMUs to represent fluorescent fittings).